Suicide bomber kills eight in Bulgaria

‘NORMAL PERSON’:An attack at Burgas Airport that killed five Israeli tourists was carried out by a man with Bermuda shorts and a backpack, a Bulgarian minister said

Reuters, BURGAS, Bulgaria

Smoke billows after a blast at Bulgaria’s Burgas Airport on Wednesday. Eight people were killed and about 30 injured in an explosion on a bus carrying Israeli tourists outside the airport, Bulgarian authorities said.

Photo: Reuters

A suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed eight people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the country’s interior minister said yesterday, and Israel accused Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants of responsibility.

Video surveillance in front of the airport and the investigation showed the bomber could not be distinguished among arriving Israeli tourists, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said at the airport of Burgas, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

“We have established there was a person who was a suicide bomber in this attack [on Wednesday]. This person had a fake driving license from the United States, from the state of Michigan,” Tsvetanov said.

“He looked like anyone else — a normal person with Bermuda shorts and a backpack,” he said.

Special forces had obtained DNA samples from the fingers of the bomber and were checking databases in an attempt to identify him, Tsvetanov said. Bulgarian security services had received no indications of a pending attack.

Tsvetanov said eight people were killed in the attack, including the Bulgarian driver of the bus and the bomber. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it could confirm that five Israelis were killed.

The tourists had arrived in Bulgaria on a charter flight from Israel and were on the bus in the airport car park when the blast tore through the double-decker. Body parts were strewn across the ground, mangled metal hung from the bus’ ripped roof and black smoke billowed over the airport.

Yesterday, the airport in Burgas — a city of about 200,000 people at the center of a string of seaside resorts — remained closed and police prevented people from approaching.

Beyond the cordons, about 100 holidaymakers waited patiently for their planes, but had been told they would be there until midnight. Officials were setting up portable toilets and tents for stranded travelers and Bulgaria’s parliament opened with a one-minute silence in memory of the bombing victims.

Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah carried out the bombing.

The blast occurred on the 18th anniversary of a bomb attack at the headquarters of Argentina’s main Jewish organization that killed 85 people and the Argentine government blamed on Iran, which denied responsibility.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran, the Jewish state’s archenemy, was behind the attack and that “Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror.”

There was no immediate Iranian reaction to the Israeli accusation.

Medical officials said two badly injured Israeli tourists were taken to hospitals in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia. One woman was in intensive care with head and chest injuries, and a man was in a critical condition with burns covering almost 55 percent of his body.

About 30 lightly injured Israeli tourists were to be flown back to Israel later yesterday.

Israeli officials had previously said that Bulgaria, a popular holiday destination for Israeli tourists, was vulnerable to attack by Islamist militants who could infiltrate via Turkey.

Israeli diplomats have been targeted in several countries in recent months by bombers who Israel said struck on behalf of Iran. Tehran has denied involvement.